“With this capacity adjustment (…) in 10 days we will increase the autonomy that the Department of La Paz will have in storing diesel and gasoline here in Senkata,” the President told Press Latina during the event.
Arce described this work in the second largest department of the Plurinational State as “very important” and “transcendental” as it allows for an increase in storage capacity of 20,000 cubic meters for diesel and 16,000 cubic meters for petrol.
According to the president, these stocks will ensure the supply of the entire La Paz automobile park and the other departments, whose demand has increased in recent years.
The dignitary added that from the point of view of energy security, “the normal functioning of the entire production apparatus of our country” is guaranteed.
He reported that there are around 5,600 small and medium-sized businesses in various industries in the city of El Alto alone.
He added that this area is one of the main export routes for minerals and other products via El Alto International Airport, which circulated about $3.99 million worth of goods in 2022, according to the National Institute of Statistics.
According to the company’s sources, the Bolivian government invested $11.65 million in the new Senkata deposits through Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos.
For his part, Deputy Minister for Exploration and Use of Hydrocarbons, Raúl Mayta, stressed that this work had created 50 direct and just over 150 indirect jobs.
In his speech, Arce revealed that “large-scale” production of soybeans, sorghum and corn, which will serve as feedstock for the future biodiesel plant, has started in northern La Paz department.
“We’re going to turn all of that into oils and then those oils get shipped over here in El Alto so we have La Paz diesel at the plant with La Paz raw material to meet La Paz consumption,” he said the Biodiesel Plant II, the construction of which was inaugurated on March 6 in District 8 of this municipality.
Arce stressed that these works honor the people of El Alto who gave their lives defending Bolivian Gas against neoliberal policies in October 2003 and in resisting the coup d’état in 2019.
This work was delivered as part of the celebrations of the 214th anniversary of the Liberation Charter of La Paz, which will be celebrated on July 16th.
jha/jpm